


Not That Boy Anymore

by Incoherentbabblings



Series: Tumblr Ask Game Prompts [22]
Category: Batgirl (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics), Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Gentle Kissing, Hopeful Ending, Mentioned Bruce Wayne, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Post Red Robin #26, References to Depression, Stephanie Brown is Batgirl, Tim Drake is Red Robin, Tumblr Ask Box Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:00:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27063796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Incoherentbabblings/pseuds/Incoherentbabblings
Summary: After the incident with Red Robin and Captain Boomerang, Bruce has taken to passively aggressively needling Tim into feeling guilt at every available opportunity. One night at a party held at Wayne Manor, Tim has had enough. Stephanie chases after him, trying to provide some level of comfort, even though she may not be the best candidate.
Relationships: Stephanie Brown/Tim Drake, Tim Drake & Bruce Wayne
Series: Tumblr Ask Game Prompts [22]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1970230
Comments: 1
Kudos: 10





	Not That Boy Anymore

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt:
> 
> _“I can’t be what you want me to be!”_

Alfred truly did a lovely job managing the Wayne Estate garden. With its high hedges, bright flower bushes and vegetable patches, it was a place a couple could get lost in. Or hide in.

Or have an argument in.

Tim had stormed out of the dinner, leaving the music, guests and Bruce behind. Not far behind him, Stephanie, made up to the gills in her fancy makeup and hair, tripped after him, hiking up the fabric of her green dress and tumbling down the stone stairs. She chased after him on the grass, stumbling in her heels through the mud.

“Tim wait!” she yelled. “Please wait. He was just being an asshole. Don’t let it ruin your ni—”

“How can you stand it?” he said, coming to an abrupt stop and whirling round. Over his shoulder, Stephanie spied a pair of mated cardinals feeding berries to each other. _Lucky monogamous faithful birds._ Stephanie looked back to Tim, his cheeks flushed in his anger which showed up even in the darkness of the garden.

“I just… I’ve learned to not care,” she supplied uselessly.

He scoffed and began to pace. “Peachy. Well, I haven’t. And the fact that he… he can just _say_ things like _that_ to me, in front of people like _them…_ I can hear the dig and he knows I can. And he knows I can’t say a goddamn thing and…” He turned back to face the house, cupped his hands to his face and yelled, “I am not that boy anymore!”

He began to pace again, and Stephanie let him stomp his frustration into the ground, ruining the lawn.

“I don’t agree,” she murmured.

“With who? Me or him?” His very bright eyes glared at her, but she did not flinch. Instead, she returned the glower.

“Do you enjoy who you are right now Tim? Do you like being this angry all the time?”

He looked vaguely disgusted, retorting, “What kind of question is that?”

“I’m speaking from experience here. ‘Cause I do know. Remember?”

Tim’s expression morphed into heartbreak, and she took that as her cue to move nearer to him. Not quite touching, but close enough that he could feel the heat radiating from her.

“And you helped me,” she whispered. “You and Cass, then Leslie and Babs. Do you really think that boy is gone? ‘Cause I’d like to prove you wrong.”

Tim looked down and sniffed, “I can’t be that person for you anymore. I can’t be what you want me to be!”

“Says who?”

“My trauma,” he snarked.

Stephanie couldn’t help it, she snorted a laugh and Tim looked at her with a dangerous glint in his eyes. She shrugged it off and continued to push.

“Oh, okay. Fair dues.” She embraced him tightly, and pressed kiss after kiss to his face. “But I don’t think he’s gone. My sweetheart.”

With each kiss he grew less tense, until he became totally lax in her arms.

“I don’t know,” he admitted.

“Then trust me. Can you do that? I know… I know it’s a big ask after everything.”

Tim sniffed again, “No. I mean… it’s not a big ask. Hasn’t been for months.”

“Then we’ll try. Okay? This hurt and pain… it’s not permanent.”

“Speaking from experience?”

“Speaking from experience,” she confirmed. She looked back towards the house, jazzy music drifting through the air. “Come on. Walk with me a bit? And then we can go make Bruce regret opening that big mouth of his huh?”

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on the 2nd of August 2020.


End file.
